Living Under The Influence

The Influential 

Everyone is influenced by someone and each one is influenced by something. There is no better way that the power of influence gets blatantly expressed than in the Art-form called Hip-Hop. They may call it everything from Sampling, Interpolation, Cross-pollination or plain old Jacking. Even as I write this, I am listening to one of Hip-Hop’s underground most celebrated new groups, Pacific Division or Pac Div to the steadily growing young fans. It’s the Blend Tape; and this being one of their pre-album tapes, there’s typically plenty of their influences ‘sampled’ for good measure. Some of the most creative tunes are the resuscitated Reflection Eternal song Definition and the ATCQ classic Bonita Apple-bum, now tentatively called ‘Put Me On’. 

Of course this is not a new thing in Hip Hop, in fact there Art-form thrives on bringing back to life all types of beats, melodies and even concepts that ordinary folks wouldn’t imagine having anything to do with Hip-Hop. It is a tradition that goes back to the foundations of Hip Hop, from the pre-Hip Hop days of Jamaican Sound Systems where DJ’s/Selectors and Singer/Toasters would simply play breaks and Versions from famous songs and sing whatever came to mind just to move the crowd.

But then moving the crowd meant something quite different to what it means today. What it meant then denoted both having a sense of fun while still being conscious of the pro’s and cons of your immediate environment. Hip Hop has evolved in many ways from the Kurtis Blow and Sugarhill Gangs anthemicparty movers into a universal multi-billion dollar industry replete with its posers, imposters and yet the true Influencers still manage to maintain the respect they deserve. 

A clear example was during this year’s Grammy Awards, when MC’s Lupe Fiasco and Common tore through the stage alongside their influencers Sugar-Hill Gang and they effectively brought the whole auditorium to their feet. It was both entertaining and educational, especially for those who think that Hip Hop begins and ends at Jay-Z and Kanye West’s proverbial throne.

Back to the Pac Div phenomenon,I do dig the youthful freshness of these guys and its fun too, which has become the crucial missing element in the music. 

They clearly are not obsessed with materialism or over zealous about women in that misogynistic manner in which the Art-form has been mistakenly imbued.  But then again that might still change as they gain more fame and they pockets get filled with ‘wads’ as one of them puts it in the song ‘Syc&Mibbs’, clearly a braggadocios ode to all things fresh, including styles.

But then again, the question is will they be able to influence the next generation after them? I can bet a trillion Zim-dollars that they most probably won’t. But this has very little to do with their raw talent, but much more to do with the nature of the Networked society in which we live. One has really got to either Shock and Awe us in order to make a lasting impression, yet again to use the phrase a lasting impression may not suffice since it is also clear that no much really lasts these days. True influence and longevity is something that can depend on a multitude of factors, ranging from a rigorous work-ethic, being at the right place at the right time. But all these factors are not only immeasurable, they are unpredictable. Hip Hop itself is the very epitome of unpredictability. Who knew that an art-form born out of the slums where Black people were meant to languish and not amount to much more than what was pre-planned for them, would elevate itself into the boardrooms of Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations firms all over the world?

Today, one is able to get all types of Hip Hop, from the Ebonics and mystical hard-core sounds of the Wu Tang Clan, Afu Ra, Killah Priest, Poor Righteous Teachers and T-Love, to the super charged and materialist posturing of Cash Money/Young Money and Bad Boy Entertainment and it is a global phenomenon with distinctive styles in every language and form.

But Hip Hop is also facing the same challenges that confront art in the networked world. Products are becoming much more difficult to differentiate, to diffuse and to sell. Yes, one can simply post their best work on Myspace, Reverb-nation, Google, and into millions of internet radio stations and portals, yet this cannot guarantee the ultimate success of their product, In fact it can be the most original work of art but if a significant number of users does not pick it up and repeatedly play it and pass it on, it becomes just another dot in the vast abyss of pseudo-significant data in cyberspace.

This brings us to the power of ideas. The Malcolm Gladwell books The Tipping Point, Click and most recently The Outliers have become worldwide best-sellers. Interestingly when I finally read these publications and listened to the audio-tapes, I did not find anything truly remarkable about the ideas postulated there, the other was surely a well read and consummate researcher and was able to scientifically come to the conclusions that there are phenomena that can be predictable and also unpredictable which influence the decisions of a consumerist society.

In Outliers he also shows how certain sociological factors can result in specifically measureable outcomes so that certain people are able to achieve much more than others. Without diminishing Gladwells hypotheses I must say that ultimately, nothing influences people more than what has been called the gut-feeling or the intuition and that is what was also meant by the Rastafarian Jamaicans when they said ‘Who Feels It Knows It.’

Menzi Maseko (c)

Lets Get Free

Sizophum’eLokishini – Getting Out of the Location

A RE-Introduction to Pan Africanism and Black Consciousness for Wellbeing

In this document, I aim to point out once and for all, that there is an urgent need for South African/Azanian people in particular to understand the urgency and practicality of Black Consciousness and Pan Africanism. This is the only means by which we all can work together to address the inequalities and poverty that keeps dividing us even further.  

I write this mainly because there are many who make the mistake of considring the practice of Pan African-ness for being a purely political thing. In every conversation about the value of Pan Africanism, someone is most likely to bring in the subject of the failures of political parties such as the Pan Africanist Congress- PAC, Azanian Peoples Organisation – AZAPO, the Socialist Party of Azania – SOPA and finally the Black Consciousness Party. Most rationalists will offer that Pan Africanism has not worked due to its impracticality, even some Black people will go as far as to say that it is wholly a racist policy that has no place in our multi-racial society.

 It is important to see the distinction between individual or everyday Pan Africanists and the broader aspirations of such political parties, for herein can one understand that the former may seek a totally different solution compared to the latter. Here I must say that I am merely stating my opinion, yet I shall strive to qualify my opinion by offering some enlightening examples from elsewhere.

What people have to understand is that even though these organisations were formed to represent the Black Southern African majority, they failed to capture a large number of people merely due to the fact that they were operating within an economically, politically and ideologically unequal field.

We must first understand that all of these ‘break-away’ political parties were merely seeking to revolutionise the methods of their former organisations.

The histories of how all of the above parties emerged from the African National Congress is well documented, yet what is not clearly defined is the fundamental differences in approach and how it is that the nationalists were able to survive and capture the peoples minds and hearts of the striving masses, while the Africanists became weaker and weaker still.

To really appreciate these differences, we have to step out of the Africanist / Nationalist points of view and interrogate how both these liberation movements took to Socialism and Communism or rather to the teachings and analytical methods of European thinkers such as Marx, Lenin to name but a few.

Even a superficial perusal of the speeches and interviews of people such as Robert Sobukwe and Steve Biko reveals that the African National Congress and the PAC have always had different approaches to Communism and Socialism, yet in earlier times there was a unity of purpose as expressed clearly by Biko:

“Clearly, black people know that their leaders are those people who are now either in Robben Island or in banishment or in exile – voluntary or otherwise. People like Mandela, Sobukwe, Kathrada, M.D. Naidoo and many leaders of the people. They may have been branded communists, saboteurs, or similar names – in fact they have been convicted of similar offences in law courts but this does not subtract from the real essence of their worth. We may disagree with some things they did but know that thy spoke the language of the people.”( From I Write What I Like )

And on socialism, here’s what  some serious followers of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe have to say:

“Sobukwe and the Africanists always saw the struggle for national freedom as an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist struggle. They believed that national liberation is intertwined and inseparable from social emancipation or the struggle for socialism.”

‘Africanist therefore have always rejected the two separate stage theory of our revolution – where there will be a separate national democratic revolution or stage 1, led by one political entity and later a second socialist or stage 2, led by yet another political formation.

Finally, Sobukwe, like all Pan-Africanists, believed that a United Africa must project an African personality by making a positive contribution to the affairs of humankind.’ – From IKHWEZI

So briefly, although the ideas of socialism were shared by both the Pan Africanists and the Nationalists, there was a difference in their approach to how capitalist imperialism exemplified by pro-western ideals had to be tackled. One could say it was and still remains a question of whether blacks negotiated a settlement with their common enemy or they demanded full emancipation, which is complete independence and autonomy. It is clear today who the ones who decided for a negotiated an peaceful settlement and who refused the falsified divorce papers.

There is also the question of democracy. The Africanists continue to shout that 'Africa is our country’ and the Nationalists say that we are all working towards a ‘better life for all’.

To put it simply, the Africanists and the Nationalists differ in their interpretation of what a real and earnest revolution entails. While both fought and continue to agitate for African sovereignty and self-determination, the meaning of revolution is like East and West for these parties, and so it is for the ordinary people, the so called proletariat and the working classes which make up the majority of African people.

There needs to be a common understanding amongst We Black people of what it means to be truly free and what it is that We have striven to be free from.

There is a tendency to forget that Pan Africanism is not about politics at all, but a wilful attitude change that an African undertakes in order to put Africa and all things essentially African first in their life.

We also must understand that the enemy of all our progress is a common one and that all true revolutions must take us from a position of lack into a place where we can have the power to determine our destiny.

Yet how can one determine ones future when the leaders of expected progress continue to waste our resources and fail to bequeath the masses with a unique ideological framework – a progressive and practical roadmap for our total emancipation?
 When we act as if we do not believe in our own ability to even produce the most basic goods and we are made to depend on far away nations who are still free to purchase and own private property in the land that in which we rightfully belong?

What I mean is that the current governments neo-liberal policies are both impractical and unsustainable merely due to the fact that the no matter how much industrialization occurs on our soil, the native will always rise up and revolt in demand of his natural inheritance.

On this matter of sustainability which speaks to the manner in which the Republic of South Africa treats matters of nationalization and land acquisition let’s hear what Karl Marx himself had to say:

“From the standpoint of a higher socio-economic formation, the private property of particular individuals in the earth will appear just as absurd as the private property of one man in other men. Even an entire society, a nation or a simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not owners of the earth, they are simply its possessors, its beneficiaries, and have to bequeath it in an improved state to succeeding generations as good heads of households.”- (Capital Volume 3)

As much as I am loathe to quote from the European giants while trying to explain African challenges, it is clear that we have been dealing with problematic systems that we have inherited from them; hence they also know better how we and them have been mired in such a dilemma.

So here we can see how Marx eloquently maintains that there is a deeply flawed understanding of what society’s purpose is on planet Earth.

He makes it abundantly clear that we are not owners of the earth. Everything we found when we were born we shall also leave here, this includes most of our inventions. So all this competition over the ownership of lands and resources that have been naturally bestowed upon native beneficiaries is a complete waste of both resources and valuable time, time that would be best utilised in creating a less competitive and more sustainable human condition. 
I dare say that the essential work of all Pan Africanist is to help realise this very ecological land and economically sustainable world. This is what is meant above when we say that Sobukwe and others were eager to see Africans contributing positively to the affairs of humankind. And this is also expressed clearly by Biko when he writes:

“Freedom is the ability to define oneself with one’s possibilities held back not by the power of other people over one but only by one’s relationship to God and to natural surroundings. On his own therefore, the black man wishes to explore his surroundings and test his possibilities – in other words to make his freedom real by whatever means he deems fit.” ( Biko – I Write What I Like )

Pan Africanism and Black Consciousness then simply seek to enable black people to determine their own fate, to move away from such dependency on Western civilization. The more we depend on others for our own freedom the more enslaved we shall become, the more impoverished shall be our cultures and we shall end up not having anything to give to the world beside songs, sporting excellence and our embittered lamentations.

Black Consciousness and Pan Africanism takes a fearless look at the causes of our poverty and prescribes a cure that will once and for all root out the problems. Pan Africanism is not merely a demand for jobs, benefits and better salaries, just like Black Consciousness; it is a total revolutionising of the mind and a way of life.

Here, an explanation is required:

“Poverty is defined as being more than a lack of income. Poverty exists when as individual or a household’s access to income, jobs and or infrastructure is inadequate or sufficiently unequal to prohibit full access to opportunity in society.The condition of poverty is caused by a combination of social, economic, spatial, environmental and political factors.

During apartheid, African people were made poor through urban management, and revoking racially exclusionary policies did not level the playing fields. Instead, a superficial sense of equality was created. The effect has been the inability of most of the population to claim their socio-economic rights. (Parnell &Boulle – 2006) further argue that the entrenched patterns of inequality arising out of human settlement management have resulted in the rich being able to reproduce the conditions of their privilege in an environment that is superficially equal.”

This lengthy introduction has simply explained the reasons why I took up the task of writing this.

The mess in which the majority of African peoples are in can only be described as wretched, yet this is not a call for self pity, it is also not a reason to become any more agitated than we all already are.

There is a need for African peoples to recognise that the world can still be a better and brighter place for them and that they are the perfect agents for that change, that revolution. My aim is to show Our people that the revolution is in their hands and that it will not come from politicians or from prophets who promise them a heaven on earth.

The poverty We are in should not diminish our longing to be self-sufficient, we are able to be better than We currently are.

But it requires an honest re-examination of how we ended up so far down the turning wheel of civilization and that has to be a totally fearless look at ones history and abilities.

Chinua Achebe’s statement in his paper, ‘The Novelist as a Teacher’, is instructive:

 “If I were God I would regard as the very worst our acceptance – for whatever reason – of racial inferiority. It is too late in the day to get worked up about it or to blame others, much as they may deserve such blame ad condemnation. What we need to do is to look back and try and try and find out where we went wrong, where the rain began to beat us. Here then is an adequate revolution for me to espouse – to help my society regain belief in itself and put away the complexes of the years of denigration and self-abasement.” –P.44, Morning yet On Creation Day

It is clear from the above statement that Achebe is calling for the same revolution that the likes of Steve Biko were calling for when they recommended Black Consciousness for the masses of Africans worldwide.

While I have already dealt with the reasons why Black Consciousness is even more relevant today in my other writings, it must be made more clear that there are many forces, both national and global that are threatened by any serious rise of such a consciousness.

It has been written by many activists that the ruling party would rather keep the masses of the Black majority ignorant rather than provide a proper education system that is relatively free or affordable since the more people are in the dark the less likely are they able to see that they are being stolen from and lied to by their own political representatives.

A revolution is something too far fetched and even seen as unnecessary to a people who do not read, who are un-educated and therefore unaware of the causes of their misery. Hence we still find too many cases of Black on Black violence, a problem which is more economically based rather than xenophobic. 
Therefore we are at a stage when people have to be Conscientised, Re-educated and made to realise that business as usual is unsustainable as much as it is undesirable.

So a revolution is not only necessary but it is at hand, but let’s see whether we are all on the same page regarding what this very word means.

In democratising the struggle: revolution by “structural reform” and popular empowerment,
 John Saul writes:

“One final term we need to interrogate is the word “revolution” itself. It is a tempting word since we know just how big and aggressive is the capitalist enemy that must be overcome. But perhaps, despite this, it’s just a bit too tempting – and somewhat too romantic – a notion. For what we have seen so far suggests that the “socialist revolution’ will not spring easily from some sudden social upheaval nor be consolidated quickly or well, even under the leadership of some unusually wise vanguard.  – A structural reform must not come from on high: instead it must root itself in popular initiatives in such a way as to foster further empowerment.

 It must lead to growing self consciousness and organisational capacity for the vast mass of the population who thus strengthen themselves for further struggles, further victories.” – John Saul in Marxism & renewal in the 21^st Century – new challenges, new thinking.

With all that said, I would like to once again (still reluctantly) use the example of the politically ubiquitous Marx, albeit through the pen of another analyst: 

“Marx’s vision of ‘communism’ was that of sustainable human development, where human beings lived as part of nature, not separate and above it. His ‘communism’, clearly, was not the state-dominated authoritarian experiment in ‘actually existing socialism’, where ‘democracy’ was emptied of its content.” – ( Devan Pillay – associate professor in Department of Sociology at Wits University)

 And in conclusion I shall re-quote what this same writer has quoted from Bolivia’s ex-president Evo Morales whose green socialist development strategy is worth emulating for We Africans.

“For us, what has failed is the model of ‘living better’ (than others), of unlimited development, industrialisation without frontiers, of modernity that deprecates history, of increasing accumulation of goods at the expense of others and nature. For that reason we promote the idea of Living Well, in harmony with other human beings and with our Mother Earth.” (Quoted in Foster, 2009:35)

Pan Africanism taken beyond the anti-racial paradigm and towards its natural conclusion seeks a similar human condition, where White Supremacy has been defeated and wanton industrialization has been put in check. “We know we shall win for we are confident of the victory of good over evil.”-HSI

TBC

Menzi Maseko

The Unfinished Story of Humanity

Becoming Human Again

“Something cured me of the effect of education, and made me very sceptical of the very notion of standardised learning. For I am a pure autodidact, in spite of acquiring degrees. My father was known in Lebanon as the “Intelligent Student Student Intelligent”, a play on the words as the Arabic phrase for “Intelligent student” (or scholar)” - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Among the vociferous and increasingly agitated circles of Black Consciousness, the question of what or who can be deemed human is a nagging constant. In fact the only other topic that can rival this one is probably the question of Steve Biko and his statements on liberals, white liberals to be specific. These are fundamentally related questions and they both form the basis of this essay.

 Somehow we as Black Afrikan thinkers have been dealing with this matter since even before the advent of Biko activism and his brilliant conception of Black Consciousness. In the aftermath of William Styron’s book The Confessions of Nat Turner in the 1960’s, which provoked not only the ire of many Black American writers, but also raised difficult questions about history – the matter of who is worthy to tell black peoples stories and fight our struggles remains unresolved.

While Nat Turner is a powerful symbol in the cultural memory of America, as a prophet, rebel, and as the leader of the bloodiest slave insurrection in American history who has fascinated both fiction writers and historians; Biko remains a misquoted and thus most misunderstood leader in Southern Afrika.

Many are those who take pleasure in quoting his words out of context, attempting to lend weight to their own paltry intellectual capacities. There are those who deliberately use his words to further the personal and political positions in the psyche of the gullible public. Politicians and other tricksters are prone to placate us with their moralising speeches peppered with some familiar yet misconstrued Bikoisms.

What is problematic is that aside from the outraged voices of the real lovers of Biko, the ones who a radically pursuing his vision for a truly transformed Azania, a South Afrika devoid of racial prejudice, there are very few people who actually understand the depth of his revelatory statements and the meaning of his work.  The other problem is that some even within the Black Consciousness bloc have been fighting dubious battles over the ‘ownership’ of his intellectual gifts bestowed upon all.

The crucial point is that people who are non-white have been dehumanised and the people called Black more so. This has been a deliberate and calculated mission of the ones who wield economic and contemporary culture, the imperialists who own the means of production. These are the image makers and the masters of industry.

But when there have been so many outstanding scholars, intellectuals, authors and leaders in every field in South Afrika, what makes this particular person so special? Was he not educated in the same schools and read the same books as all of his contemporaries and had he not been reared on the same Christian foundation as the rest of the liberation fighters? Perhaps the answer is a more nuanced yes. Yet there is also a big BUT.

So what is so special about the son of Mr and Mrs Mzimgayi Biko? Perhaps we shall have to leave the autobiographical notes aside and let us concentrate on the fruits of his mind. Let us begin with a basic summary before we zero-in on our subject of the re-humanisation of the wretched people called blacks and indeed all of the non-white people of the world.

What is the meaning or relevance of Biko’s work today and can these loud mouthed 'clever blacks' really put their words into action? This statement made at the BPC – SASO Trial given in May 1976 said it all:

“SASO is a black student organisation working for the liberation of the black man first from psychological oppression by themselves through inferiority complex and secondly from the physical one accruing out of living in a white racist society.”

The work of Biko cannot be disregarded or relegated to the archives wherein many great and useful ideas are manipulated unto oblivion. History is also given to all types of twists and turns as the canonizers and even the praise-singers do their utmost to outdo each other and the legacy of the canonised as they recreate the ‘hero’ in their own image. Academics, especially white liberals have done this to Fanon and others.
In South Afrika, Biko continues to suffer this acrimonious fate as the ruling elites plunder his legacy and deliberately misquote his work for their own purposes.

Yet I have always had this nagging feeling that we need to either transcend worshipping our intelligent brothers and sisters whether dead or alive in order to focus on making their work really real. 
If we really are the ones we have been waiting for, then the time is now to do what Biko asked of Afrikans : 
“to give to the world a more human face.”

Matters of racial pride, addressing and debunking stereotypes and doing away with economic and social slavery require us to think more creatively. To picture many robust and possible futures, anti- fragile futures as Nassim Nicholas Taleb has written about in his book  ANTIFRAGILE : How To Live In A  World We Cannot Understand. 
If we claim to truly understand the world and thus wish to END it, what is the next step after that, hopefully not another heaven or hell on earth.

Menzi Maseko ©

31/03/13

For Chinua Achebe and for Eritrea and Ethiopia

What Good is a United States?

“The disease – the breaking-up of that community – has taken centuries and centuries, thousands of years. Most of our people do not even wish to imagine any such possibility of wholeness. If you talk to them now of unity of all the earth’s black people they stare at you like idiots. Some can understand, but even they are confused. The healers are also confused; not about the aim of our work, but about the medicines we may use and about what may look like medicine but may end up being poison.” – Ayi Kwei Armah, The Healers* (1978)

Armah’s story is as old as I am, but the talk of uniting Afrika in order to work out our problems and effectively defeat known enemies goes back about another 30 odd years. One may quickly retort by saying we achieved much during the decades of independence from 1959 until the South African Rainbow National miracle of 1994. 

But all honest seekers of this dream of unity have their opinions concerning the efficacy of our governments, the powers of neo-colonialism and the consistent presence of imperial powers throughout the developing world. We all have our opinions about the role, power or powerlessness of the Organisation for African Unity, now called the African Union. 

While many are disappointed and even utterly frustrated by the AU’s lack of initiative, political will, financial and military clout; many more are optimistic and can count on its many achievements and even legislative victories. But all these are subjective and do precious little to explain to the ‘born free generation’ what significant gains have been achieved by the heads of states and bureaucrats who gather yearly under names such as NEPAD, MAPP, SADC and African Renaissance and even the BRICS summits. All agree that there is still way too much conflict and underdevelopment in the richest continent in the world.

Last night I spent some time with some brothers from Eritrea and Ethiopia, but they now work and study in South Afrika and are avidly learning local languages. After long conversations that ranged in different topics from God, Religion, Sex and Political Will, we ended up speaking about common languages and the necessity to learn from each other and make conscious efforts to simply ‘Be’ with each other.

Later as Tesfu* and I were headed home in a taxi cab, he began explaining to me why the unity between Eritrea and Ethiopia is just another dream in a Rastaman’s head. He gave me a very accurate history of how these two countries which were once autonomous provinces of the same nation with various ‘nationalities’ and principalities united at the ancient border by the sacred city of Axum came apart.

 He was at pains to explain that Eritrea was never really part of what we now know as Ethiopia before 1855. But the most insidious presence through-out East Afrikan history was the British imperial powers who competed for the Afrikan prise with the Fascist Italians. Hence Eritrea was colonised for many years by the Italians until they were defeated by the British who promised that they would relinquish power to the natives as soon as peace and socio-economic stability was established. 

That reminded me of all the modern countries who were invaded by the western powers in the name of democracy and human rights. The new victors always stayed over much longer than what was originally agreed and that further exacerbates the problem. 

White supremacy always seeks to treat black people like children or blind people who require constant guidance and surveillance, lest we ponce upon each other and commit repeated genocide.

Afrikans the world over exist as if we are under a spell forcing us to be unable to think and act independently. This of course is not some mumbo jumbo, supernatural spell, but it is akin to the ‘Culture Bomb’ that Ngugi Wa Thing’o is talking about in his seminal text; Decolonizing The Mind. After trying the many prescriptions that have been used all over the world to make revolutions that more often than not, turn out to be false starts or disappointing and costly failures, it is time for Black Afrika to earnestly work out its own destiny, using our own instruments to navigate the past, present and future.

Just a quick quotation from the back-page of this book The Healers*: “A century ago one of Africa’s great empires, Ashanti, fell. The root cause of that fall, symbolic of Africa’s conquest, was not merely Europe’s destructive strength. It was Africa’s disunity: divisions among kindred societies; divisions within each society between aristocrats, commoners and slaves. Even then, some saw this disunity as our people’s deadliest disease, and they sought the only possible cure: UNITY. These were the Healers. This is their story, a novel centred on th curative, creative vision of African unity. A story of the past, it speaks calmly to the present, and looks clearly to the future.”

This idea of unity, whether new or ancient is a very attractive one and it is so mainly because it seems plausible enough. The question is whether it is achievable or not. Can anyone or any institution successfully unite the various and distinctive ‘nations’ and tribes within nations in all their heaving and largely wretched mass? What of the glaring religious differences and what about the scars of post-colonial conflicts?

I admit that these are not plain black and while issues and that there are expansive and time warped grey areas which complicate and hinder the seekers of unity. We all agree that peace and reasonable dialogues are not only necessary but are the only way that any progress can be made. 

There are thousands of non-governmental organisations, thousands of conflict resolution initiatives and countless workshops and therapy sessions are held in communities from Alexandria to Khayelitsha, all amid the squalor and depressive slavish conditions that largely black Afrikans exist under. One cannot say that none of this work matters. 

There are obvious problems even within these ‘healing’ and often heroic exercises, but there are also problems of human frailty, such as corruption, greed and abuse of power. Perhaps those are just unavoidable troubles that are part of the human condition, but that is where a book such as Armah’s is important or even truly indispensable. 

Yet we all know that our highly educated liberation leaders, our heroes have mostly read the whole African Writers Series, they have even scoured the whole classical Greek, Western literature, East European versions of what constitutes true egalitarian societies, such as the whole communist catalogues from Hegel to Stalin and all the way to Fidel Castro. But what good has come out of such higher learning and affiliation?

The so called ‘clever blacks’ remain slaves to a system that seeks to further destroy anything that we may proudly say is our own. The Thabo Mbeki’s may quote speeches from Leopard Senghor, Jean Paul Sartre, William Shakespear, Soyinka or Wordsworth and Lincoln, yet none of those sweet and prophetical words serve to unite us in one vision. This illusive and precarious vision of Afrikan unity, the world that we know must emerge. But perhaps I am being cynical and must give our fathers their proper respect. After all, without their speaking truth to the powers that be, I wouldn’t be sitting here on the ‘holy mountain’, Howard College at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, writing freely and un-harassed.

If I may just allow myself to be uncharacteristically sceptical and ask: How do we know that this beautiful, peaceful and much desired Afrika can actually transpire, how do we know that it is achievable and not just another utopia? One answer would be that we know that the many heroines and heroes of Afrika did not defend our sovereignty in vain. We also know that our scholars, anthropologists, political, community leaders and advocates for justice were not stupid. They were healers and some were fearless warriors whose very blood coursed with the fire of truth, the truth that Afrika was once peaceful and culturally united.

So how does one explain the source of the pre-slavery and pre-colonial disunity if the European and the disease of white supremacy is not the only one to blame? Was there an intrinsic or home-spun virus that conspired with all that is evil in the world in order to decimate us from the head to the foot? Many writers have attempted to answer that question and even Armah does his best to describe the special circumstances that transpired in West and Northern Afrika. Chinua Achebe (who I am hearing through social networks has DIED today 22 March 2013 …may the Black Gods accept his chi, his ba and his ka, may he live forever and his healing work transpire) - did his best to describe how things eventually fell apart in Nigeria. His most famous novel resonated through-out the continent and touched many people all over the world.

 But despite these highest achievements, countless books and tours, films and all manner of creative efforts to assist Afrikans to pick ourselves up and realise the need for unity, we seem to be crumbling at the seams of globalisation. We have largely succumbed to ‘westernisation’ from our cultures, dress-codes, languages, political theories and even the most basic of everyday lifestyle habits.

For what good is a political unity if culturally, economically and ethically we are divided. Afrikans today are some of the most ubiquitous and vociferous advocates of democracy, socialism and communism. All these are great ideas which are really wasting space in Black people’s heads. Afrikans require the ‘Afrikan Solution’ that has been spoken about by everyone from Lembede, to Haile Selassie I, Kwame Nkrumah to Robert Sobukwe, Thomas Isidore Sankara and countless others. Yet some of these heroes were highly influenced by socialism and ideas of democracy and even the teachings of the Bible and the Quran, it is not such a far-fetched idea to say that this reliance on western and Middle Eastern more’s or moral codes was their very weakness.

 Did Sankara need Marx to figure out that his people are in socio-cultural bondage. All he learned from the East Europeans was the type of political theory that allowed him to name and shame his problem. But I doubt that if he had immersed himself in Afrikan history, whether through the Oromo system of the Gadaa or the Kemetic way of Ma’at this enemy wouldn’t be named and even more affectively defeated.

So the natural question is what exactly is keeping us apart? Here to it appears as if we are divided both ideologically and even in praxis. There are those who advocate for a complete disassociation with any western powers, who view complete and determined Black-Power Pan Afrikanism is a logical solution. Then there are the gradualists, the assimilationists and the neo-liberal ones who claim just as the founders of the African National Congress have said all along, ‘we cannot even imagine surviving ourselves, without the help of the white man and the Chinese man’, therefore we must keep applying political pressures, keep on trading and cooperating with our former oppressors, as human beings with mutual needs and benefits. But this is ridiculous and it is the reason what we find ourselves still producing the raw materials with no significant gain as we buy everything back and still continue to pay for loans forced upon us by imperial powers.

The work of the healer according to Armah is not easy yet it is not as impossible as many perceive.  He writes:

 “’Only our confusion comes from merely from impatience. The disease has run unchecked through centuries. Yet sometimes we dream of ending it in our little lifetimes, and despair seizes us if we do not see the end in sight. A healer needs to see beyond the present and tomorrow. He needs to see years and decades ahead. Because healers work for results so firm they may not be wholly visible till centuries have flowed into millennia.’” – (p.84 )

With these words in mind, would it be apt to assume that despite their mistakes and even questionable actions and ideas, people such as Kwame Nkrumah, Haile Selassie I, Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara, Julius Nyerere and countless other luminaries in Afrikas rich past of leaders, are actually the Healers. If their work such as that of the Jewish Messiah called Jesus speaks to millions years after their demise, must be seen as the healing work?

But who does it benefit if the suffering masses endure the most dehumanising atrocities today? Who is going to take care of today?

Unity of Afrikan states is one thing but how can we hope to unite the billions of blacks and Afrikans when we are struggling to find unity within the ‘nations’. The Sudan has recently been split into South and North, there is sporadic conflict in Mali, DRC and Lybia is still trying to recover from the fall of the beloved tyrant Muamar Gadhafi (the country is still divided along ethnic and class lines).

The Egyptian so called Revolution which toppled Hosni Mubarak is also undergoing serious threats of regression and the people on the ground are disillusioned and conflicted over the role that their new leader should be playing. There are seriously worrying fractures between leaders and factions within South Afrika’s ruling ANC.

Although they may seek to play it down as a necessary and democratic process where anyone is free to contest and express opinion and redress, it is clear that our ruling elites are immune to criticism and they use every form of psychological and systemic intimidation to maintain an air of infallibility. But the situation especially among poorer communities remains terrible and it is still a matter of “white man’s heaven, black man’s hell.” The masses of landless, poorly paid and under-serviced blacks are growing more and more resentful. 

I have just learned that some mine and farm workers have decided to abandon all government related unions and have started their own party called Workers Socialist Party or WASP. I wonder whether their sting is going to be more lethal than the plethora of already existing socialist organs.

Another example of how it is difficult to maintain unity intra-nationally is that of Zimbabwe. After losing a relatively free and fair election in 2008, Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front agreed to share power with the election winner Morgan Tsvangirai.

It was an unpopular and highly contested decision, but here is what the notoriously loathed and equally loved Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratc Change had to say in 2009:

“Don’t think of Mugabe as a madman and Zimbabwe as a country in flames. And don’t seek rebellion or assassination – that’s precisely what has hobbled Africa for 50 years. Instead, try showing your enemies respect and turning them into colleagues.

Leave the old arguments and conflicts where they belong: in the past. Try peace. Try the future. This is not a revolution. This is an evolution. The trouble with evolution is that sometimes it can be slow and frustrating.” (Time magazine, interview by Alex Perry, August 3, 2009)

Wow, such benevolent speech, such forgiveness, such a great patience and perspective coming from a man who has been persecuted and crucified by many Afrikans within and outside of Zimbabwe. A man who has been called a puppet of the imperialists of the world and of the United Kingdom in particular. Is Tsvangirai; applying for the Nobel Peace Prize, is he reciting these words on the famous Idols competition? Or is he being genuine and displaying the true characteristics of the true leader, a selfless man. In a continent where greed, patriarchy and corruption threaten to tear the whole countries to pieces, it seems that we need to hear such words of hope and gradual state evolution.

But many Afrikans are also calling for urgent systemic overhaul. As many might still support Mugabe despite his questionable human rights violations record, many more wish that he and many other long-serving former liberation patriots should now just step aside and let the younger generation forge ahead towards the great work of healing the half dead soul of Afrika. We are calling for nothing short of Revolution. But due to the many different ideas of what this revolution should entail or look like, we continue to be divided and we move further away from the Nkrumahs dream of a United States of Afrika.

Scholars have rejected the idea as ridiculous, just as they had rejected Marcus Garvey’s ideas of international Black capitalism based on shared interest, our blackness and our irreversible situation in the western state of being. But these uniters of Blacks are still evoked in every conference, they are quoted far more than Mandela or Desmond Tutu are. Nkrumah’s idea of a Political and Economic Kingdom is still as attractive to this generation as it was to our parents then. So when will we find the time, daring and sheer audacity to do things on our own without capitulating to the United Nations, World Bank and other western forces?

Is there such thing as patience when it comes to making a revolution. Where would Cuba be today if Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and the others were patient with imperialism? What would be the legacy of Cabral if he and his comrades were patiently negotiating with the racist Portuguese powers?

I guess we must try to strike a balance between the vision and work that has to be done in the meantime. So the healers work is to also find the right words, works and instruments to keep the people interested in the ultimate result – unity – while still offering solutions for the pressing challenges of What Now.

Menzi Maseko ©

Talking Back Talking Black By Any Means

Between Ethiopianism, Rastafari and Black Consciousness

 “Will the real black people please stand.

Those fearless of the unconventional,

Moved towards their  own blackness;

Prone to influence and set trends,

Schooled in their times and folkways,

Dedicated to worthwhile endeavours,

Attentive to meaningful expression.”  

- (Desiree A. Barnwell’s 1970’s poem, Will The Real Black People Please Stand; quoted from Imraan Moosa’s essay, The Future Is Still Open )

While still on the remarkably clear and brilliantly conceived essay of advocate and Black Consciousness activist Imraan Moosa, I find it necessary to use yet another one of his notes, this time from his own pen; he declares:

“My identification as an Azanian defies apartheids preconceived categorizations, and my identification as a Black person allows for no indulgence in tribal and ethnic deviations and preoccupations. I identify myself with Azania, with Afrika and with the Black tradition of the wretched of the earth. The challenge is to create Azania. There is much work to be done. Let us do it.” (Page 6: The Future Is Still Open)

In his impeccably well researched and deeply personal essays, Moosa has a way to make Black Consciousness so clear and understandable even to a passive reader. Because, let’s face it, the South African public is mired in racial tension and faces racial stereotypes at every turn, yet many choose to ignore all this and carry on with their lives without contemplating or acting on ways to challenge inequalities that arise from racism. Thus even the mere words Black Consciousness have been miss-understood at best and ignored at worst.

Moosa’s research and use of Black and Indian diaspora sources to elaborate the universality of BC appears to have been initially aimed at ‘proving’ to the so called Indians, Coloureds and other non-white peoples of occupied Azania that BC is as relevant for them as it is for the people traditionally or historically and politically regarded as Blacks.

In a manner of speaking, Moosa and many other adherents and even earlier professors of Black Consciousness are saying that Azania of the real New South Afrika as envisaged by pan-Afrikanists will not simply appear out of the clouds.

Black Consciousness is not a Messianic tradition.

Black people united have a real reason and choice of turning the theory into reality and the groundwork has already been laid. Aside from the Biko’s, Tiro’s, the Fanon’s, the Poets and  many other unsung revolutionaries within the continent and through-out the diaspora , even during the early times of colonialism and missionary zeal, Black queens such as Nzinga, Muhumusa, Yaa-Ashantewa and many kings and noble Blacks have defended the dignity of this land. Ordinary Black men and kings have defended their homes and fought tirelessly against whiteness. I will make mention of the great Zulu warrior Bhambatha ka Mancinza and many more.

So the notion of Black Consciousness is not something that can be limited to specific names and peoples, we are the conscious creation of many generations of resisters.

The crucial question arises then; what will we do and when? Although nowadays, many black radicals often question the efficacy of unprincipled and what they call unity for its own sake, there is clearly no hope of Black Afrikan people’s power without a United or concerted effort.

Yes, unity is a must but it is easier pronounced than done, the time for wishful thinking and uniting without proper conviction is long over. I believe that an International Black Consciousness community exists, but it exists in many fragmented groups that could work better united.

But then again, people wish to have their own groups where they can be seen to shine brighter that the others. There is the Ethiopian World Federation, a great and mightily international movement that was initiated by Black people from the Afrikan disspora during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. The fact that it exists till this day is a heroic feat, but one wonders what its true impact is on the lives of the wretched Black folks the world over.

There are many more such courageous and well-meaning Black organisations, businesses, associations, even universities that focus on Pan-Afrikan development, yet again their effect on the lives of our people is difficult to detect. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that we all exists in the middle of a White Supremacist world where visibility is over-determined by whiteness or ones proximity to it.

In my personal life, I have grappled with these issues of personal and social transformation. Having spent much of my 20’s and now early 30’s as a Rastafarian, the heart-breaking and sacrificial work of striving to unite Black people towards noble causes is beyond the word difficult. Being a revolutionary is a thankless preoccupation. As much as Rastafarians profess to be vehemently anti-politics and purportedly anti-racist; it becomes clear that in this world, one cannot avoid or try to skirt around political and racial realities.

As I grew deeper in my understanding of the world, I simply could not keep chanting songs about the ultra-romanticised Theocracy Reign of a deposed Ethiopian Emperor, neither could I remain comfortable singing songs about a mystical Afrikan Zion “a place of saints and angels”, when in reality all saints are dead and angels are nothing more than imaginary friends.

In reality, Afrika requires us to be brutally honest in our analysis and plans of action, how to achieve Pan Afrikanist Black Power sooner than later for the sake of our children and grandchildren.

The faithful quoting from the Kebra Nagast (The Glory of Kings), The Holy Bible, The Book of Henok or from the Important Utterances of HIM Haile Selassie the First have not helped Afrikans to unite, stop slaughtering each other, competing for crumbs at the table of white supremacy and black deception – these tomes can make us feel optimistic and that we are a part of a living history but our today and our future demands a radically different and pragmatic attitude. This is not a pessimistic but a realistic view.

And so when I made my decision to cut my dreadlocks for the last-time, it was a painful yet liberating experience that set me on a journey of self and societal transformation. Dreads are a simple outward form of identifying oneself with a culture or the beliefs of the Rastafari, but they are by no means a sign that one has adopted that rigorous way of life which includes specific habits, diet, appearance and a whole new perspective on life.

Yet many Rastafarians are revolutionary thinkers, while a lot more are simply engaged in the external cultural expressions, nothing more or less.

The revolutionary thinkers exist in a paradoxical or ambivalent space between believing or ‘knowing’ the divine right of monarchs (Haile Selassie I as the King of all kings and the ruler of all lords, both biblically and traditionally) while also being knowledgeable about the works of Marcus Garvey, Walter Rodney, Kwame Nkrumah, Afrikan historians, political movements and of course Steve Biko.

Being aware of the works/words and meaning of Biko, Garvey, Fanon and others would normally set one on a collision course with religious expressions that support or condone the existence of states such as Israel or even the USA. These are States that thrive on injustice and profit from the exploitation of others without impunity.

But here lies the paradox and complexity of Rastafari – as a pseudo-religious movement, Rastafari is supposed to be a way of life and not a religion at all, at least not in the typical sense. This is a contradiction since in the rituals; the Holy Bible takes centre stage. It is after all called a Church. The Church that the Emperor built, although he might have meant it to be a place where Jesus Christ is praised instead of His Deputy (Seyuma Igziabeher).

Alternatively other hand, there has been a revolution taking place within the specific sectors of the universal Rasta movement.

Some devotees of the God Emperor Haile Selassie I have totally denounced all associations with Christianity, refuting the well-known Ethiopian Orthodox and Biblical connection to the movement. These new Rasta’s have adopted a strictly Pan Afrikanist and traditionalist expression. The most prominent among them is called BaKehase (The People of the Light or The Light Bearers). The leader or Grandmaster of this new movement is a charismatic, very well spoken and intelligent young man who goes by the name of Thau-Thau Haramanuba, although he does have many other names. After many Facebook conversations and arguments (Reasoning) I finally met Thau-Thau and we had some truly interesting conversations especially surrounding what he proposes should be the daily practice of a Rasta who has disassociated him or herself from the Bible and what is the role of ancestors.

Although this is not a new phenomenon, in Jamaica it is accepted that although Rasta’s are identifiable by their use of marijuana, wearing dreadlocks , their natural lifestyle and cultivation of a pro-African or Afrocentric culture or rhetoric, they vary significantly in their views concerning the God-King! While some maintain a strictly biblical and Messianic and Millennial view e.g. the Boboshanti or EABIC, the Nyahbinghi Theocratic Order and the 12 Tribes of Israel there are those who have a more secular and even traditional Afrocentric outlook, viewing Selassie I as just one of the great kings and modernisers of Afrika. The latter are usually scholars of Egyptology and Kemetic school of thought. They link Ancient Kush, Kemet to modern day Black people as an unbroken lineage of spirituality and cultural unity.

This sense of unity in diversity has not saved Rasta’s from regular persecution by lawmakers, the use of the illegal substance called ganja does not make things any easier neither. While it is not all Rasta’s who use or smoke marijuana/ganja, many defend its legalisation while others favour the option of decriminalisation. But this is a subject requiring its proper essay and research, time and space. Suffice to say it bears a lot of information about the economic potential for people of colour all over the world. While all races use it, it is regarded as traditionally Indian and African yet the essay would investigate the trend of who benefits from its cultivation, legalisation and distribution.

So what has all this to do with Black Consciousness and the cultural and socio-political life of we as a people? Well, I dare say, essentially everything!

The universal Rastafari ‘gospel’ has been adopted by people of many racial and cultural backgrounds. Ever-since the rise of Reggae music, especially the stellar yet ironically misunderstood legend of one Robert Nesta Marley, Reggae and the identity of Rastafari has become an even bigger. The King of Reggae has been instrumental in rising even raising the status of Ethiopia more than that of his homeland (the Island) of Jamaica. Like Guevara, Marley could be called a true Internationalist or Outer-nationalist as Rasta’s often say.

Both these troubadours were revolutionaries in their respective fields, rising above difficult transitions and violent political climates to become symbols of Liberation and the birth of a New Man. Both are inspirational liberation fighters, one through the ideology of Socialism and guerrilla warfare, the other through the philosophy of Ethiopianism and artistic excellence.

Just like Socialism, Rastafari has been breaks through many national and cultural boundaries, yet the latter maintains what is called ‘Black Supremacy’ as its core. Black emperor; Black empress, black repatriation and reparations is the constant call of the Rastaman since he is concerned with the restoration of Black Afrikan dignity and sovereignty. By escaping or defeating (burning down) Babylon, the Rasta seeks to become a member of a New Race that is beyond petty prejudice.

This concept of becoming New or Transformed human beings is far from novel. Whether one looks at the early writings of Marcus Garvey or even the speeches of Haile Selassie I where he says we must become something we have never been…children of a New Race, overcoming petty prejudice…

It is clear that Afrikans and non-white people the world over had not just been contented with fighting against the scourge of white supremacy, but were dealing decisively with the psychological and social effects of imperialism.

Menzi Maseko ©

The Revolution is in our greens

Seeds of Slavery

Genetically Modified Organisms and the Role of the Black Revolutionary In the Struggle for Food Security

Introduction:

The notion democracy in Afrika and indeed throughout the so called Third World is clearly a mixed bag of optimism, gullibility and dubious policy decisions. The questions I will to raise here are; who really controls the conversation, the flow of information, public relations, political will and whether there is any form of participatory democracy here in Africa and in Southern Afrika in particular? Further, I will ask whether the ordinary Black Southern Afrikan is knowledgeable enough to understand the impact of GMO’s and globalization in his own life and that of his family and land. What kind of politics if any is required of us in order to achieve self-determination and satisfactory use of our resources e.g. Water, soil and renewable sources of energy?

Matters of global chaos (so called Global Warming); land ownership nationalization, redistribution and progressive politics of Black Consciousness will be touched upon with a conscious effort to examine the role of radical political activism in the fight against White Supremacist ideas and actions. We will begin by determining the role of the ‘State’, civil society and the Afrikan individual in general.

Part 1: A Stateless mind-state

“We find ourselves at an intersection that presses us to consider, once again, the character of the state that we have created. The task for the immediate future is no longer the reconstruction of the fundamental principles, tools and institutions of democracy and a free market economy. All that has already been accomplished. I do not believe that our future goal should be merely the creation of an efficient capitalist democracy. We need something more: we need to begin a serious discussion about the character of the democracy that we wish to cultivate – its roots, spirit, and direction. With equal seriousness, we should also consider what needs to be done at the different levels of the reconstructed market economy so that its fruit may be enjoyed by the general public. We need quite simply, a new vision. One that is mindful of the future role of citizens, local government, and state.” – Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus in Rival Visions, in Journal of Democracy ( Vol.7, number 1 – January 1996: Civil Society After Communism)

Let us get one thing clear and out of the way as soon as possible. Afrikan governments and Afrikan leadership has generally failed in its mandate to liberate us and wrest Black people from the mire of the neo-colonialism. There is very little to prove that the Afrikan continent consists of truly independent states or nations. There is still an appalling dependence on Europe, Amerikkka and the rest of the industrialised world for the most basic goods. The infrastructure of many if not all Afrikan countries is made in China, India, Scandinavia, USA and in some places the residue of Portuguese, German and British colonialism. In a word, we are still slaves who are socially, politically, economically and somehow – culturally dead. We are not yet men and women; we are still sophisticated and egotistical beggars.

But what are we begging for? This is the central theme of this paper. Precisely, what makes a wealthy person beg from a poor person? Or to put it in Peter Tosh’s melodic lamentation: “Africa is the richest place yet it still has the poorest race” – These are questions that are raised daily, in drinking spots all over the continent and indeed worldwide. The question is raised in thousands upon thousands of academic journals, books, theses, seminars and convention centres. The Black person who is even the least bit conscious of her and his condition, is pursued by this nagging question daily.

But is there an answer? If so where can it be found; perhaps in a ‘political solution’, a supernatural dimension – in church, mosque or at the ancestral shrine? Whatever the case may be, it is abundantly clear that the answer must come sooner than later, since our problems are piling up, our governments are messing up and the gods and ancestors also seem clueless. I say this about the gods and ancestors not because I mean to be disrespectful, for many are the active traditionalists, spiritual leaders, and ministers of the gospel who have offered humanity some formulae and suggested that we either return to the principles which prevailed in pre-colonial, pre-slavery Afrika or that we should heed the prophets who preach personal righteousness which would then translate to national favour with the divine. It is clear that we have generally heeded neither the messiah nor the messengers of the great ancestors. Our situation seems far from any resolution, therefore the only option is a complete revolution – the form of which must begin in our minds, hearts and most specifically in the manner in which we produce, distribute and regulate what and how we eat. Yes, the Afrikan revolution is primarily in the soil, the water and the type of seeds we choose to sow today. It is that simple. So the role of Afrikan politics and business is a nothing more than a series of costly compromises, hypocrisy and downright delusion.

Our leaders have successfully put many of us under a spell and the Black Afrikan exists in a state of wretched duality. Once a modern worker-slave yet also a proud but land-less, visionless shadow of the white person.

Now let us look at the role that GMO’s and their multinational propagators have on the present and future prospects of Black Afrika and indeed the entire planet.

To be Continued...